02.21.08

Due to Novell’s increasing dependence on Microsoft, it has become rather difficult to distinguish between Novell and Microsoft. Both companies are motivated by some similar ambitions and therefore they help one another. In reality, Novell helps Microsoft a lot more than the other way around, so it’s hardly a reciprocal relationship. Novell gives Microsoft business whereas Microsoft gives Novell ‘FOSS bills’ to pay.

Quite ironic is that fact that Novell, a contributor to OpenOffice.org, is harming the very same project it purports to be helping. Have we mentioned that the front page of OpenOffice.org used to link to BotcottNovell.com for a couple of months? Watch what Novell is still doing for Microsoft, based on this new article from the Asian press.

In concert with the efforts to promote interoperability between the two platforms, Novell also announced support for the Office Open XML file formats in their version of the OpenOffice.org productivity suite.

Mind the word “their”. When Novell says "their", one can also interpret that as “Microsoft’s & Novell’s”. It serves both companies, as though they have become a collaborative team that strategises together.

Remember our writings about what seems like a Novell fork of the project [1, 2] and consider other related observations [1, 2]. Sun Microsystems, being a FOSS control freak, must not be too thrilled about Novell’s behaviour. Then again, there are many complex (and sometimes conflicting) agendas, so just like IBM, they ultimately find a way to get along and carry on.

“Hundreds of millions in throwaways is small money for a multi-billion cash cow, so Novell truly sold out here.”Novell ‘supports’ OOXML, but make no mistake. It does not mean that it truly believes in OOXML as much as it is obliged (almost forced) to support OOXML. It signed such a contract with Microsoft. Hundreds of millions in throwaways is small money for a multi-billion cash cow, so Novell truly sold out here. It apparently needed the money.

Microsoft CTO: ODF is an ‘elegant’ standard

Then use it. Remember that ODF is already the one and only international standard. OOXML is an attempt to ‘complement’ the standard with an application andan entire operating platform (Microsoft Windows).

So let’s reject Microsoft’s push for legacy inflation. Otherwise we will soon find that the next version of OOXML is also unchangable, since Office 14 will be out before the next version of OOXML is standardized. Will we then be unable to change anything in OOXML 1.1 because Office 14 is already in beta? Where does this end?

When one talks about or defends OOXML, the question you should ask is: “which version of OOXML? Or rather — which version of Microsoft Office(R)“? █

“It’s hard for Microsoft to commit to what comes out of Ecma [the European standards group that has already OK’d OOXML] in the coming years, because we don’t know what direction they will take the formats. We’ll of course stay active and propose changes based on where we want to go with Office 14. At the end of the day, though, the other Ecma members could decide to take the spec in a completely different direction. … Since it’s not guaranteed, it would be hard for us to make any sort of official statement.”

The lunacy of the EPO with its patent maximalism will likely go unchecked (and uncorrected) if Battistelli gets his way and turns the EPO into another SIPO (Croatian in the human rights sense and Chinese in the quality sense)

Another long installment in a multi-part series about UPC at times of post-truth Battistelli-led EPO, which pays the media to repeat the lies and pretend that the UPC is inevitable so as to compel politicians to welcome it regardless of desirability and practicability

Implementing yet more of his terrible ideas and so-called 'reforms', Battistelli seems to be racing to the bottom of everything (patent quality, staff experience, labour rights, working conditions, access to justice etc.)

"Good for trolls" is a good way to sum up the Unitary Patent, which would give litigators plenty of business (defendants and plaintiffs, plus commissions on high claims of damages) if it ever became a reality

Microsoft's continued fascination with and participation in the effort to undermine Alice so as to make software patents, which the company uses to blackmail GNU/Linux vendors, widely acceptable and applicable again